There鈥檒l be no fracking in the UK鈥檚 national parks 鈥� unless there is. The UK government has almost ruled out fracking in national parks and other beauty spots, except it has also said fracking could be allowed 鈥渋n exceptional circumstances鈥�.
The government is keen to use the country鈥檚 reserves of shale gas and shale oil. It has just for fracking, in which water is fired at high pressure into rocks to release oil and gas that conventional methods cannot get at.
鈥淯nlocking shale gas in Britain has the potential to provide us with greater energy security, jobs and growth,鈥� says , minister of state for business and enterprise, and for energy.
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At the same time the government said licences should normally be refused in , , and a wetland area called .
Public interest
But even these areas can be drilled or fracked if it is 鈥渋n the public interest鈥�. The will have the final word on such cases. A spokesperson said the decisions would 鈥渄epend on local circumstances鈥�.
Many of the shale rock formations identified as potentially 鈥渇rackable鈥� lie within national parks or areas of outstanding natural beauty, as the map below shows.
There is already strong public opposition to fracking. Exploratory wells, sunk as a prelude to fracking, have triggered angry protests, most famously at Balcombe in southern England last year, when sank a small well into rocks that were naturally fracked.
The map below shows areas already licensed for oil and gas drilling.
Public alarm
Fracking has several potential environmental consequences. The risk of minor earthquakes and contamination of drinking water sources with fracking chemicals raises the most public alarm, but researchers say these are relatively small problems.
鈥淎t worst, the quakes would be like a lorry driving past, and even that would be unusual,鈥� says of Durham University in the UK.
Aplin says fears of water contamination are also overblown. 鈥淭he data from the US suggests that contamination seldom rises more than 500 metres above a fracturing operation,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f the fracking is below that, as is usually the case, contamination is very unlikely.鈥�
Instead, the worst impacts would be in the form of pollution from heavy lorries transporting materials and waste water to and from fracking sites. 鈥淓ach fracking operation produces two million gallons of waste water, and that has to be taken somewhere for disposal,鈥� he says. Gas can also leak from abandoned wellheads if they are poorly sealed.
Billions of barrels
The UK has enormous volumes of oil and gas that might be extractable using fracking. The British Geological Survey estimates that there are in southern England, and .
But experience from the US suggests that as little as 1 per cent might be extractable.
Aplin estimates that 鈥渢housands鈥� of wells would need to be sunk to make fracking worthwhile in the UK. So far, there are only three, compared with 40,000 in the US.
Cuadrilla has already submitted two planning applications for wells in Lancashire. One of the sites overlaps slightly with the , an area of outstanding natural beauty, but a spokesman says Cuadrilla has no plans to drill there.
Meanwhile, has acquired four licences in the Weald, but is first assessing whether they can be drilled conventionally.
